Conversation
Purpose:
The purposes for holding conversations with students include providing additional opportunities for exposing them to target words, providing them with models of complex language, and giving them opportunities to use newly learned vocabulary in context and to express concepts or ideas about the target words.
For DHH students, conversation can be difficult as they are often not included in conversational exchanges. It may be difficult at first for students to attend to and join in conversation. Teachers may find that they are teaching the students how to hold a conversation as well as teaching targeted vocabulary words. Over time students will become increasingly comfortable with conversation.
Procedures:
- Orient the student to conversation (e.g., “I want to show you something that we’re going to talk about.”)
- Show picture, video, or prop.
- Provide a conversational prompt.
Strategies for Successful Conversation:
During conversational exchanges with students, use the following strategies:
- Ask the student open-ended questions or use “tell me” statements. Using open-ended questions encourages turn taking during conversations.
- Give the student opportunities to respond with more than one-word answers. Try to include one or more target words. Provide opportunities for the student to use one or more target words in the responses.
- Use contributions and acknowledgements in response to the student. In this way the student will know you are listening, but will be encouraged to keep talking.
- Follow the student’s lead. While you should keep the target words in mind and use them as much as possible, to keep students engaged, follow the interests of the student. In addition to the target words, include other interesting words to which the student may not be frequently exposed.
- Respond to the student with vocabulary and linguistic recasts and expansions.
- Recast student responses by rephrasing the student’s utterance using target vocabulary or another interesting word.
- Expand student responses by elaborating with more sophisticated language structures.
Ask students to repeat recasts and expansions, if appropriate. However, do not allow the repetition to interrupt the back-and-forth flow of conversation. In other words, be judicious about requesting student repetition.